Kerala churches help migrants in lockdown-NGOs of the Churches has launched help desks

The state govt has assured free food, Covid treatment and vaccines to more than 15 lakh migrant labourers

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TT Special Correspondent   |   Bangalore   |  09.05.21:  Social service organisations of a few churches in Kerala have come forward to help migrant workers in the state that went into a full lockdown mode on Saturday.

The Kerala government has assured free food, Covid treatment and vaccines to more than 15 lakh migrant labourers — mainly from Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand — in the state.

Malankara Social Service Society, an NGO of the Malankara Orthodox Church, has launched its help desks named “Pravasi Bandhu” to ensure all the government welfare measures are delivered to the migrant workers. Funded by Caritas India, another church-run organisation, the society has already undertaken an outreach in cities where migrants live in large numbers.

“Our help desks in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kannur will take care of the immediate needs of the migrants across the state. This includes ensuring free vaccines, Covid treatment, dry rations announced by the government and any other help they might need to tide over the pandemic,” Father Thomas Mukalumpurath, executive director of the society, told The Telegraph on Saturday.

The state labour department has already launched a programme to test migrant workers in the state for Covid. “We plan to maintain this help desk even after the pandemic subsides since continued assistance is required for migrants,” he said.

“During the first wave of Covid last year, we had concentrated on providing assistance to local families with physically and mentally challenged people. But then we realised that migrant workers have their own specific issues, including the language barrier that often comes in the way of getting what is rightfully theirs,” said the clergyman.

“Our aim is to ensure the migrants get all of these benefits. We have already reached out to their colonies to spread the word about our initiative,” he said, adding the experience from Ernakulam where they have been operational since August 2019, would be replicated across the state.

प्रिय अतिथि श्रमिक साथियों,

केरल सरकार केरल में आपके प्रवास के दौरान लॉकडाउन में आपको मुफ्त टीकाकरण, मुफ्त चिकित्सा और आवश्यक खाद्य सामग्री किट के रूप में सहायता प्रदान करेगी।

किसी भी सहायता के लिए श्रम अधिकारियों से संपर्क करें। 

टोल फ्री नंबर : 155214, 1800 42555 214 pic.twitter.com/2N2qQVYchI

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 8, 2021

Anandu Shaji, coordinator of the centre in Kochi, the district headquarters of Ernakulam, said: “We have tied up with the National Health Mission on the vaccination programme and want to ensure every migrant worker is inoculated. We are also busy identifying a dedicated first line treatment centre for migrants in Ernakulam so that they get proper treatment for Covid.”

Shaji is part of Welfare Services Ernakulam run by the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church.

More than 3,000 masks have already been distributed in Vathuruthy in Kochi where over 5,000 migrants from Tamil Nadu live. “Most of the migrant workers don’t wear masks, especially while working. We are trying to educate them on the need to wear masks to ward off Covid and to ensure they don’t get fined by police,” he said.

Nobody will go hungry during the lockdown. Next week onwards free food kits will be distributed for all families and guest workers. Food will be delivered to the needy from People's Restaurants and Community Kitchens through Local Self Government Institutions.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 7, 2021

The society has “reached out to more than 200 representatives of migrant workers in Thiruvananthapuram to send across the word that they could communicate to us any problem they might face in getting vaccinations or medical care”, said Sijo Thinavila, coordinator in the state capital.

Such initiatives, he said, would help reduce anxiety among the workers who had last year staged massive protests for transport to go back to their home states.